Radical Cake!

This is a promo that was made for the next Northeast Convention, to be held April 11th - 13th at Harvard University in Boston. If you're interested in going, holla at us, if not, check out the video anyway! It shows some sweet stuff we've been up to as an organization over the past two years, and features New School SDS members and actions. And Meaghan's radicccal cake!

Study Group - Infrastructure and Campaign

Friends,

At tonight's meeting we decided that the first meeting of our new
study group will be this Sunday at 2:00 p.m. in Brooklyn at my place.
Our study group's focus will be on long-term strategy (for the Left,
SDS, and our chapter) and will lead towards the creation of a
developed infrastructure for our chapter, as well as detailed campaign
strategies.

To kick-off this group, we will be reading After Winter Must Come
Spring: A Self-Critical Evaluation of the Love and Rage Revolutionary
Anarchist Federation. This document was created by the Fire By Night
Organizing Committee, a small project based in New York City and the
San Francisco Bay Area that came out of Love and Rage and officially
disbanded in 1999. The document is rather long, but it's an easy read
and of particular relevance to young radicals seeking to build a
powerful progressive movement in the United States. Fire By Night
grappled with a lot of questions we face both locally and nationally,
including leadership development, internal education, long-term
strategy, vision, etc.

The document is available online:
http://loveandrage.org/?q=afterwinter

Pat Korte

Workshop #2: Chapter Building and Retention

From the New York City SDS Organizer Training Collective
Check them out at http://sdsworkshops.wordpress.com/

Since the first workshop was such a success we will be continuing our monthly workshops on various topics to help grow and build our movement and strengthen SDS. There has been a lot of demand for a dialog about Chapter Building and Chapter Retention. We’ve seen or been apart of chapters that are thriving one semester and then almost non existent the next. Let’s come together and talk about what has worked for us, what we are struggling with and how we can help one another.

Some things we will be covering:

* Keys to building a local chapter
* How to make meetings enjoyable and effective
* Keeping members involved, empowered and excited

Where: Brecht Forum, NYC 451 West Street (btw. Bank and Bethune) www.brechtforum.org
When: Tuesday evening, March 25th, 7:00pm
What: SDS Strategy Training #2: Chapter Building and Retention (by and for SDSers!)
Why: Because building a strong local chapter is not always easy and we
all need to share ideas and learn tools for how to be more effective
agents of change.

See y’all there on March 25th !!!

5 Years And Counting

Elisa Deljanin is a writer for the New School Free Press and a supporter of the antiwar movement. This was published on Facebook early Thursday, and she kindly let me repost it here.

Today (or yesterday, but it feels like today) was the anniversary of the war in Iraq. Five years ago today, our disgraced "President" George W. Bush sent American troops to war, and just 19 days before that, he stood on USS Abraham Lincoln addressing the nation with a "Mission Accomplished" sign behind him. Bullshit.

What was accomplished? The 3,990 US soldiers killed in Iraq (as of yesterday)? Or the 82,249 – 89,760 DOCUMENTED deaths of Iraqi civilians (think of the amount if we estimated the undocumented deaths and added it to these)? The torture committed in Abu Grahib Prison or Guantanamo Bay? Bush claims he is "spreading Democracy" but if Iraq is now a "democratic" country, what are we fighting? We can not fight terrorism. It will ALWAYS be there. The citizens of the world that support this war need to see that the United States is not a heroic country and can not fight evil. Besides, the torturous acts Americans are committing against their prisoners IS terrorism. I guess we must be some hypocrites, eh?

Yesterday, I attended SPEAK UP! a benefit concert for Peace in Iraq and Justice at Home. Sure, I enjoyed the music, but I also learned something with the audience. Back in November, the coverage of the Iraq war was down to 28% in the news. Now it's down to 3%. Last month, I heard Heath Ledger's name daily. He died, but how many Iraqi civilians died the same day he did? How many people died of hunger and disease in third world countries that day? More than the single white man that starred in a movie or 20. He was a source of entertainment but these are PEOPLE I am talking about. One person makes the world turn?

This is a critical time in our lives, everyone. This is one of the biggest elections in America's history that could determine whether we stay in a MEANINGLESS war or if we get our troops out of Iraq and stop killing innocents and our troops. Vote for someone that will not keep us in for another 100 years (McCain said he would keep the troops in for another 100 years...do you want him as president??). Vote for someone that recognizes the meaning of human rights and understands this war is important and wrong. I don't know if you notice this by the way, but none of the presidential candidates spoke extensively about their plan for Iraq and that's a little scary. So do us all a favor: ENCOURAGE THEM. Hopefully this can get to someone that has some kind of access to these important candidates to knock some sense into them.

I could go on all night about this, but unfortunately I need to sleep soon. So last but not least, abolish apathy. To all of you that say they don't care about politics because "politicians are all snakes" or something in that category: fuck you. Ever heard of the lesser evil? You're one of the reasons this idiot was put into office. This is why the news is structured like in a way where reporters can say something like, "in other news, there's a war going on somewhere." Please, stop sitting around and say something. Do something. Your opinion makes a difference. Spread the word.

Sources:
-http://www.iraqbodycount.org/
-http://www.unitedforpeace.org/
-http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/03/24/080324fa_fact_gourevitch (A VERY detailed story about Abu Grahib prisoners)
-http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/20/world/middleeast/20prexy.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin (Bullshit Bush's plans)

Reflections on Left Forum (and Funk the War)

by Meaghan Linick-Loughley (New School SDS)

This weekend at the Left Forum I had a very mixed experience of good and bad. I appreciated all the hard work that went into organizing it and I thought it was inspiring that there were more people in attendance and a broader spectrum of panels and speakers and attendees than I saw last year. However, I went to several panels that left me disappointed. I think it’s important to bring up criticisms of ourselves on the left—I think it’s something that we don’t do enough. If we want to become better organizers and rebuild the left in this country we need to look at what we’re doing right and what we’re doing wrong, what language and concepts that work and those that don’t, the useful frameworks and the frameworks that are not useful. I was frustrated by some of the frameworks that structured conversations this weekend. I was annoyed by dogmatic language and concepts that were not relevant to reality. And I was depressed by many I listened to who lacked the ability to think strategically.

The first panel I went to was one called “Anarchism and the 2008 Presidential Elections”. I went to the panel thinking it would about what the title implied: a conversation about what the anarchist left should make of the hype around the current presidential race and how it should relate to and use the political moment to its advantage. Unfortunately I didn’t read the description closely enough, “Can anarchists shrug off the end of the Bush era and this particular U.S. presidential election as just the same old statecraft - and proceed to "shut down" the conventions - or do the race (Obama), gender (Clinton), and "hope" factors problematize our usual responses?”

The panelists proceeded to talk about how the candidates were basically the same: they were all ruling class and all represented an inherently undemocratic system. It was the whole “voting doesn’t change anything” spiel. Well, yes, it doesn’t make any systemic changes but if you can’t tell the different between “a thousand years in Iraq” and “withdrawal in six months” then you are being blinded by your ideology. And the political climate for movement building (which is most important if we want to make any systemic change in this country) will be completely different under an Obama administration than under a McCain administration—or even a Clinton administration. Here is how I think of it: If McCain—or even Clinton—were to win the election, what would happen to all the Obama supporters? How would they feel? What would they blame for their political discontent? I think that their general sentiment would be along the lines of “these policies would have never been implemented by Obama, the country would be so much better if Obama won, if only we can run a better campaign in the next four years then we can fix all the problems with poverty and healthcare, etc.” What if Obama did win? If he fails to make any systemic changes or solve any of the problems that he commits so strongly to solving, like most of us on the left say he will, the political energy he generated cannot easily flow back into the electoral process. It is of my opinion that if Obama wins the presidency we will have a huge base of disillusioned and disappointed Obama voters that will be looking for an alternative. The question is whether or not the left will be there to provide them one.

This kind of discussion was not present in this panel. The sentiment of the panel was that we should first, encourage people not to vote and second, if they vote encourage them to do other things. More time was spent talking about how voting is bad and how bad all the candidates are—as if everyone didn’t already agree. There was little mention of any strategic way that we can relate to the election other than encouraging people not to vote and continuing our own organizing efforts in our communities. If this is how the anarchist left thinks then we are definitely going to miss this boat. In the panel I asked the question: “Do our ideologies prevent us from seeing how we can use the political climate and electoral politics to our advantage?” I did not receive a sufficient answer. However, one panelist said something along the lines of “One of the things I like best about being an anarchist is that it can mean whatever you want it to mean”. This is one of things I like least about considering myself an anarchist and one of main reasons that I don’t like to identify myself with that word. If it can mean whatever you want it to mean then you can call yourself an anarchist but not really believe social change is possible—and worse—shut your mind off strategically and become attached to inefficient tactics that don’t accomplish your goals and actually hinder the movement. What is the point of an ideology if it allows you to be dogmatic and prevents you from being relevant and open to new ideas and changes in the social, cultural, and political climate? What is the point of having an ideology if it allows you to believe things that prevent you from actually attaining the goals that you say you believe in? Political ideas and ideologies can be useful, but only if their purpose is to actually create social change—and as history shows there is no one formula for social change. There are approaches that have proved successful and approaches that have proved unsuccessful. There are concept and tools that work at some movements but not at others. There is a historical trajectory that we can and should use to our advantage—but sometimes we don’t use it or we even use it to our disadvantage.

Social movements have happened all throughout history in a vast array of different political, social, and cultural conditions and under extreme and varied levels of repression and consciousness among people. To continue blaming external conditions (which was a sentiment I heard at several panels) for the state of the left is to ignore this fact. A strategic left should be able to examine and analyze the external conditions they are facing and figure out how to best adapt their organizing and movement building strategy to these conditions in a way that can best monopolize on the current sentiments of the population. The way that ideologies are present in the left today prevents us from doing this. If we really want to win we need to stop tying ideology to our personal identity and be open to questioning, critiquing and evaluating our and each other’s ideas. We need to be confident enough in our political commitments to realize that voting doesn’t make someone a member of the Democratic Party and that admitting that elections are important and do change some things doesn’t mean we view electoral politics as a central venue for real social change. The truly revolutionary leftist is someone who isn’t afraid about going against ideological tradition to help build the movement and is someone who can adapt their organizing to be relevant no matter what their ideology is. There should be no reason that we can’t talk to people about alternatives to capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy, and other forms of oppression in a way that is relevant to their experience.

The only thing worse than the “just convince people not to vote” sentiment was the “race and gender don’t matter because they’re both ruling class” sentiment. Yes, the Left Forum has been traditionally dominated by Marxist thought, but one would hope that anarchists and other leftist don’t reduce every issue class as well. The dynamics of race and gender in this election are important to look at from a systemic analysis—both to counter the dominant race/gender discourse that is surrounding the election in mainstream media and also to analyze the current political climate and intersectionality of oppressions (A good article I read recently that does discuss this is “The Tightrope and the Needle” by Linda Burnham http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/03/21/18487694.php). For some reason, instead of discussing the contradictions and dynamics that race and gender play in this election, many leftists want to deny that they exist or claim that they are irrelevant—both positions are disastrous if we ever hope to be able to relate to these elections in any meaningful way.

Another sentiment I heard expressed at the forum was that “the youth don’t feel the urgency” or that the left is in the state it is in because of the apathy among the youth. First of all, I can say from my experience organizing in student communities that the primary problem with getting students active is not that they “don’t feel the urgency”, it is that they don’t feel that joining a movement is worth their time because they think it has no chance of winning. Also, there is a ton of student organizing currently taking place in and out of universities and there are many different leftist student organizations doing great work: Students for a Democratic Society, United Students Against Sweatshops, and Campus Anti-war Network to name a few. Just two days ago on the anniversary in the war DC SDS organized a dance party called “Funk the War” of 600 students and youth aged high school and up. The action turned downtown DC streets into a glorious community space of music, dancing, peace and protest while successfully blocking traffic at several major intersections throughout the entire day. All of this was done with almost no arrests and the actions attained a good deal of media coverage—the majority of which was positive. The most amazing thing about the “Funk the War” dance party? It was fun, exciting, creative and it energized and empowered everyone involved. Why, when there has been such a positive upsurge in student organizing—especially against the war and for environmental justice—do leftists think that no students and youth are in the movement? Could it possibly be that it was because there was only ONE panel at left forum that had anything to do with youth or student issues? Could it possibly be because the majority of the organizers and panelists at left forum are from older generations and the majority of panels and workshops are geared towards them? No wonder there was such a lack of youth representation at the forum and the majority of my friends who make up this youth contingency were disappointed and frustrated by their experiences this weekend.

I strongly hope that more people than us realize some of these issues and start to have these conversations in a productive way. Knowing all these problems exist makes me hopeful. It shows me that external factors that we have no control over do not primarily account for the state of the left in this country. We have the ultimate agency to change things and create a left that is more inclusive and strategic—a left that can win. As soon as we can realize our agency, our successes and failures, and learn how to analyze and adapt to external conditions I see no reason why we can’t build an undefeatable movement. But it’s going to take a lot of work, a good deal of self-criticism, and fearlessness in reorienting our frameworks.

Awkward Murtha II: No Comment

So Kate and I went to the University Operating Budget Meeting, delivered by Vice Presidents Nancy Stier and Jim Murtha. For the most part, it's incredibly boring, but it allows insight into how the University is being run, and what we have to figure out. If students are going to run the University, that means we need to do everything, not just the exciting stuff! ^_^

So it turns out the tuition rise is again going to be huge, somewhere between 5.5% and 6%, which translates to almost $3,000. They justify that by saying every other college is raising their prices, and by talking about the better service we're getting: more faculty, departments, student space. Uh, it may just be me, but I thought we had issues with the school cutting faculty, shutting down programs and closing our main building and the Lang basement? Hmm. Also, enrollment is increasing, so that means bigger class sizes and less space per student. I waited to ask questions to see what other people would ask, but it was mostly just administrative department chairs suggesting they get more money.

So yeah, my first question was friendly : I joked that I couldn't ask for more services without them raising tuition, or for lower tuition without them cutting stuff. So I brought up the issue of budget disclosure, and of the possibility of disclosing exactly how much everything costs, how we get our money, what it's spent on. Now, you know where I'm going with this, but I phrased it in a 'concerned student' sort of way. I also brought up the fact that this meeting was suspiciously scheduled during Spring Break, when no students are around.

Predictably, Murtha completely dodged the question, talking instead about building hours (which was an example I'd used). His answer ran along the lines of 'tell us what you want, and we might give it to you'. Basically, that's a no - that information is staying private. The New School has some secrets, it seems. The Vice Presidents also claimed that they had had no idea this was spring break. Uhm, how out of touch do you have to be with your University to not notice there are no students around?

My next question made things awkward. I established that what a school spends/gets its money on defines the character of the University, and explained that recently we have been engaging in military research contracts and sponsoring Neoliberal think tanks (such as the India China Institute and Center for Economic Policy Analysis). I pointed out the correlation between this, and the fact that a lot of the Board of Trustees' budget committee are either War Profiteers or subscribers to the pro-US imperialism Council on Foreign Relations. I asked how much control these people actually had.

Vice President Jim Murtha: "I...uh...uh... That's not a budget question! I guess if you want me to comment... I don't have a comment!"
Rest of the Room: *Awkward Silence for 3 Minutes*

Okay. So who controls our budget isn't a budget issue? I don't think I can comment. His logic seems just a little flawed..

Kate then asked a more useful question, about the policy of charging students to keep buildings open outside of regular hours, which swallows up a lot of Lang Student Union money. Two suits had a back and forth, and then agreed to cut this policy out starting next year and allow students to use University space for free. Word! So yeah, the meeting was at least a little bit productive.

Spirit Squad Shuts Down L3

At approximately 8.25 am on Wednesday, a group of young people entered the revolving doors of a building on Third Avenue. The building was headquarters of L3 Communications, one of the biggest and most nefarious war-profiteers that makes over $13 billion dollars a year from providing torturers, surveillance equipment, weaponary and logistics to the US Armed Forces, CIA and Department of Homeland Security. The kids, however, were members of the Anti-Profiteering Spirit Squad, and for that reason did not intend to leave those doors.

Out came chains, and the eight kids, which included activists from Union Semester, Queens College SDS, NYU SDS, Hunter SDS and, of course, New School SDS, rapidly locked down the building, to the surprise of the security staff and corporate yuppie mercenaries. Within minutes, reinfocements arrived from the Public Library, the posted meeting point, and began chanting to support the blockade. Meantime, the building manager had called all available security staff, even deputizing maintenance workers ("they look like pantera!"), and the New York Police Department soon arrived. And, though their illegal surveillance had allowed them prior knowledge of the protest (but not the location), they were completely unprepared to deal with the lockdown - The front doors were out of service for over an hour. New School SDSers Jerry Koch, Patrick Hughes and Alex Cline were amongst the first detained, after the police refused their suggestion that they arrest L3 Communications instead. Journalists swarmed as other arrests followed; pictures and footage have been published both in New York and worldwide.

The arrestees were transfered to the headquarters of the Manhattan South Task Force, questioned, then moved to the infamous central booking in Downtown Manhattan. Five were released close to midnight and recieved ACDs (conditional dismissal) with community service. The rest were forced to spend the night in a grusome cell (and witness the tragic death of a fellow prisoner), held more than the legal limit and are pleading not guilty, with the help of the National Lawyers Guild.



Our attitude is that our so called 'crime' is actually an attempt to stop a far greater crime; that is the tragic war which has lead to the deaths of more than 4,000 Americans and 1,000,000 Iraqis. Our court date is April 28th. Our next action is imminent. We need your support! If you agree with what we're doing to stand up for peace and justice, let us know!

Awkward Murtha

At the Community Meeting for the new building on 65 5th Avenue today, I asked whether New School would live up to it's charter as a socially just institution and pay it's laborers a fair wage, allow them to unionize and follow environmental and health codes. I gave an overview of how the current construction workers for the new dorm, Booth, are underpaid by their employer, New York Insulation, and forced to follow a procedure called 'ripping and skipping', which releases hazardous asbestos into the environment. We have been working with the Laborers 78 Union to rectify the injustice, and are concerned that the new building will also be constructed through corrupt and even illegal methods.

Vice President Jim Murtha: "We... uh... won't break any laws..."
Me: "We already have. The New School has a reputation as a socially just institution. Treat our workers right!!"

Then I walked out. The Security Guard, who normally harasses me for not having an ID, shot me a huge smile as I left Tishman.

Rally for a Responsible University a Huge Success!

Hey y'all

Thanks so much to everyone who came out to Wednesday's rally! We feel there was a huge amount of positive energy and that it was a great first step towards creating an atmosphere of student empowerment. While the turnout was significantly hurt by midterms (counterrevolutionary institutions of oppression! ^_^), we had loads of people in attendence, and hundreds were able to observe at least a part of the event. The courtyard, filled with people, was also redecorated as students chalked and posted flyers detailing the issues facing the University. Faculty expressed their support, security and maintenance was surprisingly cooperative, and several administrators (including VP Roger Ward and several other suits) even watched on the fringes. We're not going to be unrealistic and say there was an amazing turnout, or that there's not a huge amount of work left to do. But it was great to see so many people interested in creating a responsible and democratic university!

Dear New School: It's Protest Time!

To the Secretary of the University and other members of the New School
Administration,

We are writing to notify you of our intention to hold a rally, in accordance with the Guidelines on Demonstrations in University Facilities. This “Rally for a Responsible University” is not centered around any particular issue; rather, it is a collective effort to establish the problems with the New School University, and to present possible solutions to solve them.

A core issue will be the lack of University accountability to its students and community – this manifests itself in several ways. We lack proper democratic decision making procedures within the University, or any community, student or faculty oversight over administration or the board of trustees. We lack policies that entail a responsible disclosure of the University budget, contacts and investments, and consequently have investments and contracts that are fundamentally unethical and opposed to the principles of this university. We lack responsible handling of procedures for hiring contractors, resulting in our employment of subcontractors that infringe multiple labor rights, as well as practice environmentally unsustainable practices. We lack responsible, democratic curricular and faculty management, resulting in the cutting of certain departments and illegal firing of certain faculty against the wishes of
the majority of students. We lack responsible management of University Space, resulting in the alienation of students from their own campus and the suppression of student activities. We would even go so far as to say that there is no avenue through which we can address issues of University Responsibility and that the University, far from being supportive, has actively opposed and suppressed student efforts to discuss and address such issues.

For this reason, we feel justified in calling for a protest rally on Wednesday, 12th of March at 3pm. We have every desire to cooperate with the University in making our criticism constructive, and are committed to following guidelines to the extent that they provide for peaceful expression of our views. However, we wish to make it perfectly clear that our intention to make our voices heard is non-negotiable. We have made it perfectly clear on our website and flyers for several weeks that this rally would be happening, and have alerted members of the Office of Student Development and Activities and several Deans Offices. Were active students given equal opportunity to access the New School Website, or flyer without having the flyers torn down in violation of our first amendment rights, it is probable that your offices would have been more aware of this action. As it stands, we are content to follow the minimum requirements and give you a brief overview of the content of our rally. We invite all officers, trustees and other persons to attend tomorrow, and engage in a dialog with us in the future about possible ways to create a Responsible University.

Thank you,
Students for a Democratic Society, New School Chapter
newschoolsds@riseup.net
http://nssds.blogspot.com

About Students for a Democratic Society:

New School SDS is a cross-divisional student-run leftist group, open to any member of the University community. We are a chapter of National SDS, which is a national youth activist network.

We have between 10-20 members currently, and we are constantly growing.

We were started in the fall of 2006 A.D., as the legend goes, by several freshmen at the New School, who wanted a hand in bringing real change to their society.

We work to break the chains of imperialism, patriarchy, racism, discrimination of all sorts, and anything we see as getting in the way of our brand of radical change. We see our world as a globe; with each place affecting its neighbor and each person beholden to the great powers of the earth: the State and the Corporate Body.

We fight for the radical transformation of our communities, and society as a whole. We believe it is necessary to develop a critical analysis of the world in which we live, present viable alternatives to oppressive institutions, and to build a movement for the attainment of human liberation. We specifically see a lack of a national
non-sectarian activist network, one which is oriented toward students -- a particularly activist-prone demographic.

We are not just an anti-war group, although the war figures greatly into our vision of the world. We see the war in Iraq as a symptom of a corrupt State War Machine based on achieving maximum profit, regardless of its bloody cost (or the body count).

As Carl Oglesby once said, "We do not say that these men are evil. We say, rather, that good men can be divided from their compassion by the institutional system that inherits us all. Generation in and out, we are put to use. People become instruments. Generals do not hear the screams of the bombed; sugar executives do not see the misery of the cane cutters: for to do so is to be that much less the general, that much less the executive."

Let's stare our situation coldly in the face. We refuse to be a single issue group which looses its relevance after the end of the immediate issue. Instead, our concept of the world we desire is based upon fixing the myriad problems which face its peoples, issues, places, entities, and all of their intersections and interrelations. There is no one glaring evil to point our fingers at, only symptoms of the cancer which is devouring our society from the inside. It is this destruction, this needless consumption and violence, that we pledge ourselves to fight against, until we are either victorious or we are silenced. The people have the power, and we must either exercise this power for positive change, or we will suffocate under the burden of helplessness.

Rally for a Responsible University!

http://newschool.facebook.com/event.php?eid=12805521557

On Wedensday the 12th of March the New School chapter of Students for a Democratic Society is joining with several other campus activist organizations to call for students to walk out of class and rally in the Courtyard between the 12th and 11th Street Buildings. Too long have we allowed the University to ignore student demands that it respect its workers, stop supporting war and allow students a voice in decisions that directly affect them. Too long has the spirit of apathy prevailed on a campus full of intelligent, politically and socially consious students.

We ask that all those against the war, all those for environmental sustainability and labor rights, and all those who believe students have the right to a democratic university join us as we struggle for reckognition. We ask that you make the effort to come out and show support for student power! We ask that, if you have a class, you respectfully ask to leave early and explain to your professor that, while thousands die each month in Iraq, and while workers are paid abysmal wages and are forced to ignore environmental regulations or risk losing their job, you cannot remain silent.

We know that our apathy is complicity. We know that only an organized, passionate student movement can really work to end the war and institute social justice. We know we're committed to doing what it takes. Are you?